Upon its completion, the painting was exhibited for two days in the East Room of the White House. After having been exhibited through the country, it was purchased by Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, of New York, and presented to the re-United States, Congress unanimously accepting the gift and voting Mrs. Thompson the "thanks of Congress," the highest honor ever paid a woman in our country, and setting apart Lincoln's birthday, February 12, 1878, for the acceptance of the painting. On that day both houses of Congress adjourned in honor of the celebration; the painting was elevated over the chair of the Speaker of the House of Representatives; Garfield, then a member of Congress, made the speech of presentation on behalf of Mrs. Thompson, while the Hon. Alexander Stephens, former vice-president of the Confederacy, who, in a famous speech at the beginning of the war, had declared, "Slavery is the cornerstone of the new Confederacy," made the speech accepting, on behalf of Congress, this painting which commemorates the abo ition of slavery.

ticipated and settled in my own mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. He said in substance: "Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government, a cry for help; the government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government." His idea was that it would be considered our last shriek, on the retreat. "Now," continued Mr. Seward, "while I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that you postpone its issue, until you can give it to the country, supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon the greatest disasters of the war!" The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me with very great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my thoughts upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The result was that I put the draft of the proclamation aside, as you do your sketch for a picture, waiting for a victory. From time to time I added or changed a line, touching it up here and there, anxiously waiting the progress of events.

The victory Mr. Lincoln waited for was long in coming. Disaster after disaster followed. Each new delay or failure only intensified the radical anti-slavery sentiment, and made the demand for emancipation more emphatic and threatening. The culmination of this dissatisfaction was an editorial signed by Horace Greeley, and printed in the New York "Tribune" of August 20, entitled, "The Prayer of 20,000,000 "-two columns of bitter and unjust accusations and complaints addressed to Mr. Lincoln, charging him with 'ignoring, disregarding, and defying" the laws already enacted against slavery.

Mr. Lincoln answered it in a letter published in the “National Intelligencer" of Washington, August 23. The document challenges comparison with the State papers of all times and all countries for its lucidity and its courage:

"As to the policy I seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.

"I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be the Union as it was.' If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

The "Greeley faction," as it was called, not only pursued Mr. Lincoln through the press and pulpit and platform; an unending procession of radical committees and delegations waited upon him. Although he was at that time, by his own statement, adding or changing a line of the proclamation, "touching it up here and there," he seems almost invariably to have argued against emancipation with those who came to plead for it.

It was only his way of making his own judgment surer. He was not only examining every possible reason for emancipation; he was steadily seeking reasons against it. Perhaps the best illustration preserved to us of this intellectual method of Lincoln is his argument to a committee from the

religious denominations of Chicago, who came to him on September 13:

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What good would a proclamation of emancipation from me do, especially as we are now situated? I do not want to issue a document that the whole world will see must necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet. Would my word free the slaves, when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the rebel States? Is there a single court, or magistrate, or individual that would be influenced by it there? And what reason is there to think it would have any greater effect upon the slaves than the late law of Congress, which I approved, and which offers protection and freedom to the slaves of rebel masters who come within our lines? Yet I cannot learn that that law has caused a single slave to come over to us. And suppose they could be induced by a proclamation of freedom from me to throw themselves upon us, what should we do with them? How can we feed and care for such a multitude? * * If we were to arm them, I fear that in a few weeks the arms would be in the hands of the rebels; and, indeed, thus far we have not had arms enough to equip our white troops. I will mention another thing, though it meets only your scorn and contempt. There are fifty thousand bayonets in the Union armies from the border slave States. It would be a serious matter if, in consequence of a proclamation such as you desire, they should go over to the rebels."

The letter to Greeley, the passages quoted above, show how the President was wrestling with the question. There is every indication indeed that an incessant struggle against violent emancipation went on in his mind through the whole period. He regarded it as the act of a dictator. He feared it might be fruitless. He dreaded the injury it would do the loyal people of the South. He said once to a friend, that he had prayed to the Almighty to save him from the necessity of it, adopting the very language of Christ, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me." In talking to the